Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 July 2015
The rapid industrial growth accompanied by even more rapid export growth of such Far East economies as South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan has drawn due attention from students of economic development. Economists with a Neo-classical ideological stance, favoring a perfectly free market economy, tend to attribute the industrial growth of these LDCs to the phenomenal increase in their exports. They argue that export expansion will be conducive to growth and the problems that might arise on the way will be taken care of by market forces. They identify the export sector of the economy as the “leading sector” and label the growth strategy patterned after this model as “export-oriented growth.” Over the last decade this growth strategy has been effectively “recommended” to a large number of LDCs facing debt servicing difficulties.
Thanks are due to two anonymous referees whose suggestions helped improve the paper.